Thanks to the recent bankrupting of Joann Fabrics by a private equity group and the new, uber-confusing (and incredibly steep, up to 145%) Trump Tax that Americans now have to pay on imported goods, the Apparel Fabric Shopping Scene feels pretty dire here in the US as of late, which honestly is totally on brand for 2025. But even before the more recent developments, the number of places that you could actually walk through a door and buy apparel fabric had already been steadily decreasing.

However, I am always on the hunt for apparel fabrics, and over the years I’ve gotten pretty good at shopping for them online as well as searching out awesome independently-owned fabric shops around the country to support both in person and online. Perhaps these suggestions will be helpful to you as you search for the perfect fabric(s) for sewing yourself a beautiful Sapphire to twirl around in and cry whilst our democracy goes down in flames…

[the SAPPHIRE sewing pattern is COMING SOON — Read the “Get Ready” post here for yardage charts]

Recommended fabrics

Here is the list of some of the fabrics I recommend for Sapphire on the pattern cover: Woven light to medium weight fabrics such as linen, cotton lawn, voile, double gauze, poplin, shirting, shot cotton, rayon challis and other rayon/viscose blends, silk noil.

Let me highlight four broad fabric categories that I really love for this pattern:

RAYON / VISCOSE / RAYON CHALLIS

These types of fabrics create lovely lightweight flowy dresses. I have a few notes here: first, pay attention to weight (see info on weight at bottom of post) as some of the rayon challis are very light - possibly TOO light for your personal preference, and some can be quite sheer as well. Another thing to note is that rayon is often manufactured through a process that can be — when not done in a closed loop — absolutely horrific from an environmental standpoint, think toxic chemicals released into the air and water. So look for labels such as lyocell, modal, tencel, or other environmental certifications that indicate that it was manufactured in a responsible manner.

The care instructions can vary for rayons, but because I really like to machine wash my garments, I always test out a sample of rayon in a cool delicate cycle and tumble dry low before cutting into it.

The selection of rayons you see above (and similar) can be found at Stone Mountain and Daughter, Oak Fabrics, and Beetle and Fred. For the complete list of direct links to each of these fabrics (plus a couple dozen more), see note at the bottom of this post.

Here is a Sapphire dress I made out of rayon:

COTTON LAWN

This is a tightly woven cotton fabric (cotton production can also be terribly environmentally harmful - growing and processing cotton uses a lot of pesticide and water - look for organic fabrics if you can) that has a light weight (usually around 2 oz / square yard) and is often soft and silky. Liberty is a lovely option if you can afford it, but there are other cotton lawn manufacturers that have lovely prints and colors as well.

Cotton lawn (especially Liberty) can be pricey, but I have never, ever regretted the investment. Lawn continues to be one of my very favorite garment fabrics — it’s so easy to cut out and sew with and the weight is really great for warm weather.

The cotton lawns pictured above were curated from the websites of Fiddlehead Artisan Supply, Jones and Vandermeer and Duckadilly. For direct links, see below.

Here are a couple of Sapphires that I made with cotton lawn:

LAUNDERED LINENS

The past few years European laundered linens have been showing up in a lot of indie fabric shops and they are absolutely gorgeous. Merchant and Mills has really been knocking it out of the park with their stripes and plaids the past few years, and Blackbird in Canada has also had a line of fabrics they call “soft washed linens” that are really great — my blue Sapphire dress was a soft washed blue stripe linen from Blackbird.*

Linen has the slight downside of being wrinkle-prone but as always I just cannot be bothered about that, and I encourage you not to be, either. Linen also has numerous other benefits: more earth-friendly than cotton, long-lasting, and stays cool in hot weather.

The linens you see pictured here (and similar) are available at Domesticity, Gather Here, Oak Fabrics and Blackbird Fabrics.

*The tariffs have already affected many of the fabrics you might want to purchase from shops both inside and outside of the US — for example, the tariff for US customers on Blackbird’s soft washed linen will be 120%, a charge that will be added by your shipping provider when your package crosses the border. Other shop owners have noted that prices are going (or have already gone) up on any fabrics not made in the US, which is…checks notes…all of them. Considering that our feckless so-called leader has not offered any sort of data-backed or coherent defense of these policies, I would not expect things to become affordable anytime soon. See Exhibit A: “Price of Eggs on Day One” So support your small independently owned fabric shops if you can!!!

Here are two Sapphire dresses that I made out of laundered (blog post here) and soft-washed (right) linen:

YARN-DYED & OTHER LOOSE WEAVE COTTONS

This is a pretty general category, but I would include shot cottons, yarn-dyed cottons (like the ones from Fabelism shown above), Indian cotton ikats, Indian block cotton prints, Warp and Weft cottons from Ruby Star, and other loose-weave woven cottons in this group. Note that weights vary; Fabelism’s are heavier, Warp & Weft is lighter, as is shot cotton. Another thing to pay attention to is that block prints are often one-directional and can come in narrower widths, so make sure to order extra if you are making Sapphire with a block print.

The variety of colors, stripes, prints, and woven textures you can find across this category is really phenomenal - I love the unique aspects of these fabrics.

The cotton fabrics you see pictured above (and similar) are available at Hart’s Fabrics, Oak Fabrics, Domesticity, and Fiddlehead Artisan Supply, just to name a few spots.

Here is a Sapphire top I made out of a soft Indian cotton dobby (blog post here):

WHEN SHOPPING FOR FABRIC ONLINE…

If you can’t see a fabric in person before you purchase it, that I highly recommend using the swatch option offered by online fabric shops. This takes extra time, but you can avoid ending up with unexpected surprises.

If it’s not possible for you to order a swatch, make sure you know the following things about your fabric before you order it:

Content - what type of thread the fabric is made of, such as linen, or cotton, or rayon — this informs how your finished garment will feel and behave.
Weight - this is measured in gsm (grams per square meter or oz per square yard) - for Sapphire, I recommend something in the 2-5 oz/yd category. 2 is very light - like Liberty lawn, and 5 is a mid-weight fabric, such as laundered linen from Merchant and Mills.
Care instructions - Pay attention to the care instructions; how the fabric can be washed will determine how you can wash your finished garment.
Type - other fabric category labels like “double gauze”, “lawn”, “twill” or “laundered linen” will refer not to the content but either the way it’s woven, or treated during or after manufacturing. These types of labels can help you to figure out how it will drape or behave, how loosely or tightly woven the weave of the fabric is, among other things.

You can usually find much this information in the fabric listing, or by contacting the shop owner and asking. Politely. Because they are super stressed out right now.

Where to find the fabrics pictured in this post

I’m putting together a list of direct links to all of the fabrics I’ve pictured in this post (plus 24 more in addition to the ones you see here) and will post the full list of shopping links for paid subscribers on my Substack in the next day or so. I do not receive any compensation for collecting and sharing these links or promoting these shops, but I have chosen fabrics from shops that carry my patterns because I like to support the places that support my business!!

Please consider supporting me over there if you would like access to that list!

GO TO MY SUBSTACK

Choosing fabrics for Sapphire